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Easter blessing

To the City and to the World

Couldn't think of any bigger event in Catholic calendar than Easter, while planning your Easter break for 2015, Rome and the Vatican seem to be the best that there is. It's actually home to the Easter celebrations, it has started already yesterday, with the Palm Sunday at the Vatican, Pope Francis mass and Papal Blessings...Palm Sunday is considered as the great beginning of the Holy Week at the St Peter's Square, where crowds of people were gathering to commemorate the triumphant return of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem.

And the Holy Week can begin, next is Holy Thursday, when the blessing of the holy oils and the Mass are held at the Saint Peter's Basilica, with Pope’s presence, but only the Vatican will held the mass, also the Basilica of Saint John Lateran and Rome's Cathedral.

On Good Friday, the April 3rd, the Pope will retrace Christ's Via Crucis, Stations of the Cross at 9.15 pm from the Colosseum to Monte Palatino, re-enacting the 14 Stations of the Cross, with a prayer at each station. You will experience crowds of people, gathering with torches to follow this solemn procession with many classic music concerts in most of the churches.

On the 5th of April, the main mass is held at the St Peter's Basilica square, the Easter Sunday mass, starting at 10.15 am, also at the noon Pope Francesco will give the Easter blessing "Urbi et Orbi - to the City and to the World" . If you want to be the first between the crowds, you will have to pick up your ticket in advance, it's free though. Once you are in Rome, you shouldn't miss the home of the Christian world, the Vatican Museums is the major attraction...